Today we’re happy to welcome New York City duo Exitmusic — comprised of Aleksa Palladino and Devon Church — to the Secretly Canadian roster!

The first recorded output from the band in the form of a chilling song called “The Sea” is debuting now on Pitchfork. Mixing dark, pulsing bass, wailing vocals and swirling washes of sound, “The Sea” is the perfect introduction to Exitmusic’s gorgeous little world.

Read more about Exitmusic’s creation story and “The Sea” after the jump.

Church and Palladino started writing together several years ago, when Church, originally from Winnipeg, moved to New York following a year teaching English in Taiwan and India. Palladino, a New York native, had been writing and recording her own songs since she was in her early teens. The pair spent pretty much all of their time creating music, but things really began to take shape when they moved to Los Angeles a year later. They began recording at home, creating music that the UK’s Supersweet Magazine described as “dark, brooding and beautiful… Radiohead meets Portishead in a living nightmare.” The duo eventually moved back to New York in 2009, and have slowly but surely been taking the city by storm with their arresting, intense live shows.

The first taste of Exitmusic’s incredible output, “The Sea,” is unlike any song you will hear in 2011 — it is equal parts driving, danceable, enigmatic, primal, urgent, cacophonous and beautiful. But enough from us: we’ll let the music speak to itself.